WHAT QUALITIES MAKE A GOOD LEADER?

The three letters of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus are also known as the “pastoral epistles” because they contain practical guidelines for the training and choosing of leaders in the church. Leadership qualities cited here include:

1. A good reputation. Someone who has the respect of other people has already shown his or her ability to put others first.

• Marital faithfulness. Loyalty to the primary commitment of marriage usually foretells loyalty to the rest of one’s commitments.
• Children who believe and act like it. Can a leader in the church hope to disciple others if those closest to him or her do not embrace the faith?

2. Blameless living. This means not just abiding by rules but positively and consistently seeking God’s way.

3. No arrogance. People inflated with their self-importance leave little room for God to lead them.

4. No quick temper. In a world of interpersonal violence, Christian leaders must be devoted to peace, goodwill, and self-control.

5. No drunkenness. No leader can himself or herself be led by any substance.

6. No violence. As violence breeds the spirit of revenge, the church needs the spirit of revenge, the church needs the spirit of goodwill. The church is a community devoted to each other in God’s service, not a fractured community at war.

7. No greed. Leaders have access to money but cannot love it nor make decisions based on the bottom line.

8. Hospitality. This means active sharing of one’s personal space. enlarging one’s home to people not part of the immediate family.

9. Pleasure in good. Most public pleasures operate at the periphery of civic standards. Christian leaders find their recreation at the center of moral goodness.

10. Wise living and fair judgments. This involves making good decisions based on available facts and counsel.

11. Devout and disciplined. The leader is able to corral the occasional temptation to spin out of control to binge, to flake off. He or she is someone others can depend on.

12. Clear. consistent beliefs and teaching. A growing person in mind and heart, the leader is a learner and a reasonably decent communicator.

That’s a long list, but leadership is a high privilege and responsibility

Titus 3:10 – ¹⁰ A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;